Nokia Windows 8 Tablet Due in June: Report

Nokia's Windows-based tablet, running Windows 8, could debut in June 2012, according to a French newspaper.

Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia's French division manager let slip a
revealing piece of news to the Parisian daily Les Echos, saying the
company was prepping a Windows-powered tablet for next summer. "In June
2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8," Paul Amsellem told
the French newspaper. A company spokesperson soon sought to backtrack
from the comments, saying the company has no official commitment to the
tablet market. The company recently announced plans to release a
sophisticated Windows Phone 7 handset at Nokia World, the company's
annual event for customers, partners and developers.
The tablet could build on the Nokia Lumia 800, which features
one-touch social network access, grouping of contacts, integrated
communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch
AMOLED ClearBlack curved display and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware
acceleration and a graphics processor. The Lumia 800 also contains an
instant-share camera experience based on Carl Zeiss optics, HD video
playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive
storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for
the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately $566, though no U.S. release
date was specified.

The Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and
is designed for social and image sharing, and a browsing experience
through IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white,
cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. It offers the same 1.4 GHz
processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia
Lumia 800.

Both smartphones include Nokia programs optimized for Windows Phone,
including Nokia Drive, which delivers a personal navigation device
(PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and in-car-user-interface and
Nokia Music introducing MixRadio, a free, global, mobile
music-streaming application. The Lumia 710 is scheduled to be available
first in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end
of the year alongside the Lumia 800, before becoming available in
further markets in early 2012, the company noted.
In an update delivered later this year, Lumia users will also gain
the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of
millions of tracks. Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, which
provides the ability to search for live local music, as well as the
ability to share discoveries on social networks and buy concert tickets
also coming in the Nokia Music software update delivered later this
year.
"Eight months ago, we shared our new strategy and today we are
demonstrating clear progress of this strategy in action. We're driving
innovation throughout our entire portfolio, from new smartphone
experiences to ever smarter mobile phones," said Stephen Elop, Nokia's
president and CEO. "From the Lumia 800 to the Asha 201, we are bringing
compelling new products to the market faster than ever before. I'm
incredibly proud of these new devices - and the people of Nokia who
have made this happen."

Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.